Phone Thief Tries to Scam Brother of Girl He Robbed, Gets Reverse Scammed Instead

What's worse: losing your cell phone or your wallet? With the exception of your Driver's License, you can pretty much function in society with just your cell phone. From NFC payments to storing all of your important documents and information to being able to stalk your significant other on SnapMap, losing your phone or having it stolen can mean a huge inconvenience.

But what if you're one of those folks who has a wallet case for their phone? Sure, it sounds like a perfect combination, one less thing to remember to carry with you, right?

However, what're you gonna do when you lose that or some no-good thieving swiper snatches it when you aren't looking?

That's exactly what happened to the sister of Imgur user theowflyingowl. She was understandably bummed out when she lost her phone, something she expressed to the man we'll now refer to as "The Owl" and his sister will be referred to as "The Owlette."

So you can imagine The Owl's surprise when he received a text message from someone pretending to be his sister.

Like any good denizen of the internet, he decided to have some fun at the dirty rotten scammer's expense. You see, this wasn't a typical situation where the person was attempting to bribe the individual to get their phone back.

No, they were trying to get into the device for whatever reason. The worst part is, they had The Owlette's wallet, presumably with her ID and banking cards, all of that stuff.

Not exactly the things you want in the hands of a thief. But that's when The Owl got an idea. A time-honored tradition that's been honed by many purveyors of the web.

The Owl seized a moment that many of us would greatly look forward to: into trolling the heck out of a filthy no good schemer.

He tells the story in full: "My little sister who is going to be a senior worked hard all summer to buy an iPhone, only to have it stolen (or fall out, she is still not entirely sure) out of her boyfriend's car a week ago. She had not activated the find my iPhone app so we reported it stolen but were pretty sure someone was just being gifted a free iPhone courtesy of my sister's summer wages. On top of that, she had also bought a wallet case and lost all her IDs and cards as well. So yesterday I get this text from a strange number. I give my sister a quick call to make sure it is not her and effectively realize someone is fishing through her contacts or documents to get her password. I am well aware after the WTH that his is not my sister BTW."

"I was bored so I say to myself, why not have some fun. We will never get the phone back, but what the heck, might as well kill some time. I am certain that his or her insistence will at the very least make this a lengthy exchange." The Owl writes.

So he decides to construct a scary sounding scenario for the would-be phone thief, who seems on the brink of not believing what he's saying.

"I'm convinced this person is humoring me and just stringing me along until I cave."

"Again, I am thinking, he is humoring me but I was like, let's see how long this lasts until he stops texting me back."

The Owl's inclusion of "Avery" seemed enough to seal the deal. The thief in question had no desire to continue on a path that could presumably lead to him experiencing some cartel-style execution.

They turned the phone into the nearest police station and then high-tailed it out of there. The Owlette received an email from the police department to let her know that both her device and wallet were waiting for her, and it was all thanks to some quick thinking and trolling-for-good.

The Owl summed up his satisfaction at the moral and phone-recovering victory: "I have peaked!" People were in awe of his trolling prowess.

Some folks just wanted to know how Avery is. Others couldn't believe that his plan actually worked (it was the long con aspect of it.)

There were some commenters who just loved the consummately wholesome lesson to come out of this entire debacle.

Then there were folks who shared their own stories of iron-willed and quick thinking individuals who acted bravely in the face of crime.

Of course, the post faced its fair share of criticism and scrutiny. Some people mentioned they thought the post was a big hoax. Others couldn't wrap their head around the fact that the criminal was texting them on a phone that they wanted the password for.

They must've not read the big where The Owl mentions the person was texting from another number.

Grimy phone thieves are seemingly everywhere, like this crazy video of three people on a moped straight up snatching a phone away from a police officer.

Then there are stories of people not taking too kindly to individuals who pilfer phones that don't belong to them. I mean the price of the iPhone is ridiculous these days, but this seems a little extreme.

Some thieves need to do a better job of keeping their faces covered when they're burgling an establishment.

And then there are instances of folks just chilling outside and enjoying a meal while scrolling through their phone and someone comes along and does this.

I don't know if trolling would help that. But maybe some pepper spray or a tazer would work.